It's about 11 AM in Calgary right now and we're still waiting for the diggers to wake up.  So we might as well check the local peeps for the buzz about tonight's big game.  Here's a few things that the Calgary Herald had to say:

The Flames

Keep Your Eye On

Robyn Regehr

Someone needs to pry Tomas Holmstrom out of Miikka Kiprusoff's kitchen. It's a job Regehr would surely enjoy.

That is if Kiprusoff is the one in net tonight.  And nobody enjoys dealing with Holmstrom in front of the net.  If Regehr says that he likes the challenge, I'll believe him.  If he says that he actually enjoys the act of fighting with Holmstrom in front, he's a big fat liar.

The Red Wings

Keep Your Eye On

Henrik Zetterberg

After four straight 30-goal campaigns, the Swede, with 19 tallies, is struggling with injuries and inconsistency.

Neither of which have been a real problem lately.  But more on that later...

Lifetime against the Wings, G Vesa Toskala is 7-1-0, 1.60 GAA, .943.

Go ahead and start him...I dare you.

And actually, they have quite a bit on the "Jimmy for Calder" saga with Osgood giving Jimmy the following praise..

"I am talking from the inside-out here, not as someone who has a vote, but the fact that he's been consistent for this amount of time, and kept us in a good place, given us an opportunity to make a push for the playoffs, that alone merits, if not winning it, then being right there.  Some people tend to think being a goalie in Detroit is easy.  It's the exact opposite."

The Miami Herald always has something to say about Detroit Red Wings games.  Although there isn't too much to add that everyone doesn't already know or hasn't already said, they did provide an interesting tidbit about Calgary's loss last night to Vancouver...

Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 17-of-20 shots faced in the first period before being lifted and Vesa Toskala halted all eight shots fired his way in the second. Calgary did not allow a shot in the third frame, but only managed one goal by Robyn Regehr in the period.

I find it hard to believe that Vancouver didn't register a shot in the entire third period of this game.  So I looked it up and low and behold...

Good lord, Vancouver...what the hell were you doing in the third period?  I know that they probably leaned on Luongo and tried to play a little more defensively, but zero shots on goal in 20 minutes of hockey?  Perhaps Calgary didn't have the dismal game that I originally thought just by looking at the score/listening to the re-cap on my way in to work this morning.

I'm still very curious as to who will play in tonight's game for the Flames.  My gut says that they pulled Kiprusoff because he was getting shelled and they wanted him to rest up for tonight...

Just a running FYI...

They finally added poor Kirk to the injury report.  I feel bad for Kirk, but I just love to see the injury report look so slim.

Especially when almost two months ago, the IR looked liked this...

Ugh, the dog days of January.  Actually, most of the regular season earlier this year was for the dogs.

Detroit received some help, but not as much as we would like...

The league did itself another favor (sarcasim) by over-reacting to Ovechkin shoving Brian Campbell into the boards early into yesterday's "game of the week".  Ovi was kicked out of the game and I'm guessing that a lot of people turned the game off at that point.  Not me, of course.  I and the Future Mrs. Nightmare on Helm Street watched Chicago blow a lead for the second week in a row on NBC.  And apparently Brian "I would make that pass a thousand times" Campbell could be out for the rest of the season with a broken clavicle and ribs to boot.

Well, Minnesota cooled off the streaking Blues, which is a good thing. 

Sammy has been on fire with Vancouver and now is on a 6 game point streak.  He and the Sedins lead the 'Nucks past Calgary.  Kiprusoff was pulled in this game and Toskala came in to relieve him.  That should make an interesting discussin on who should start tonight against the Wings.

No help from Atlanta (again) and the Kings only mustered 18 shots on Nashville.  Thanks a lot.

Anaheim beat the Sharks but both Getzlaf and Selanne left the game with injuries...I don't feel bad about that one bit.

So we head into tonight's contest against the Calgary Flames one point ahead of them for the 8th and final spot in the Western Conference Play-offs race.  Where have we seen that before?  Oh, that's right, last Tuesday when we called it "the biggest game of the year" only to see the Wings get outshot 15-5 in the final frame at home and lose.  Now, it's payback time.

From the Free Press...

"The Flames have been playing good, and they beat us at home, and that was a game we really needed to win. So we need to get back at them right away, and this is a good chance.  We need to play with the same hunger and desperation we've had the last few games."--Johan Franzen

Thanks to the Vancouver Canucks, the Wings stayed ahead of the Flames when all was said and done with the NHL action yesterday.  In this newest group of 5 games, the Wings are currently two for two and need to keep batting a thousand.  Tonight is one of those "four point games".  Worst case scenario: Flames win in regulation and we're once again behind them by one point.  Best case scenario: Wings win in regulation and we're clear of them by 4 points.

God, a cushion of over a game would be sweet.

In other news, Ozzie still doesn't know when he's going to see another game:

"Mike (Babcock) hasn't said anything. I just practice hard and have fun, that's it. That sums it up right there."

It's nice to see that Osgood is no longer being vocal about his displeasure.  I'm sure he angry as hell...and that's a good thing.  He's a competitor and quite frankly, who wants a goalie that's content to sit on the bench and watch every night.  Hang in there, Ozzie.

Yesterday, I showed you a poster that just wouldn't caputre the drama of today's game.  This movie was probably before a lot NOHS readers' time, but I hope you at least know what I'm going for here...

March 13th: Buffalo Sabres @ Detroit Red Wings

Grab your beers and kleenex, this is going to be a tear jerker for somebody... 

Which one of you was claiming that Mike Babcock had a "if it's not broke, try and fix it" approach to our line-up?  Chris and I had a coach who did that in college and it sucks.  Well Babcock isn't playing that game according to Khan(!)...

Coach Mike Babcock said he isn't planning on any lineup changes for Saturday's game against Buffalo at Joe Louis Arena (7 p.m., FSN), meaning Jimmy Howard will make his 15th consecutive start in goal and Brett Lebda stays in on defense in place of Jonathan Ericsson.

So there you have it...

Franzen-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Filppula-Zetterberg-Cleary
Bertuzzi-Miller-Williams
Draper-Helm-Eaves

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Stuart
Lebda-Lilja
Ericsson-Meech (scratches)

Howard (starting)
Osgood

Be the better Miller, Drew...be the better Miller and we win this game.

From NHLfanhouse...

According to Greg Brady, a radio host on 640-AM in Toronto, the Boca Raton, Fla. hotel where the NHL's general managers stayed didn't even carry Versus, forcing some disgruntled GMs out in search of somewhere to watch Monday's thrilling Dallas-Washington game -- a Stars' shootout win.

Hey General Managers...go home and tell your owners about that.  They're the ones that are allowing Gary Bettman and his Versus obsession to remain.  We don't want to be a niche sport, yet our "flagship" network isn't even carried by DirectTV, a major distributor.  I think it was in Indiana a year or two ago when my sporadic co-author, Chris had to convince a local restaurant that Versus was a real channel, because they had never heard of it (the play-offs were going on).

Chris, the GMs, and the entire state of Indiana aren't the only ones who have had past problems...

Just last season, during the conference finals, Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood told CBC Sports that Versus wasn't available at Detroit's team hotel in Chicago.

"I haven't even seen a game yet," Osgood said. "The hotel we were in doesn't have Versus.

"I saw a bit of the last game in a restaurant from a distance, but that was it. I put it on my phone live and try to get the updates as it goes along. I haven't seen them, but I've read about them on my phone."

Ridiculous.  Inexcusable.  Thanks, Gary. Ass.

So since it's Friday, and I like to plan ahead, I thought I would spend a few minutes trying to draft up the movie poster for tomorrow's pre-game.  Let's recap what we've done so far...

Nashville: 10,000 BC (the poster had a sabre-tooth tiger on it)

Chicago: Indian in the Cupboard

Calgary: Reign of Fire

Minnesota: Wild Wild West

Which now brings us to Buffalo.  Do you know how hard it is to find a movie with 'Buffalo', 'Sabre', or an image of either of those?  It's not easy, let me tell you.  I was able to throw something together, but I decided to go another way.  But since I put the work in and I think it was fairly well done, I thought it only fair to go ahead and post what could have been the movie poster for tomorrow's game.

You'll have to check back tomorrow to see what it really is.

Here's another installment of "find an obscure Red Wings fan", a favorite of NOHS reader, Eats, who is on vacation down in the sunny south right now.

From mLive.com...

It happened almost in a flash for Allison Busch.

The Swartz Creek native had just arrived in Brooklyn in 2003, drum set in tow. In less than a year her band Awesome Color went from playing parties and weekly  shows to a record deal and national tours with alternative rock legends Sonic Youth.

Okay, cool, but what does that have to do with the Red Wings?

Allison (center) and her band, Awesome Color

Q: The band got its start in Brooklyn, but you just moved back to Detroit. Why?

A: Money for one thing. Rents there are three times what they are in Michigan and we've been touring so much that it didn't make a lot of sense to keep paying all that money if we were never there. Plus, I'm a Red Wings fan and it's nice to be able to actually watch some games again.

Hey, thatta girl.  Rent money is important, but we all know the REAL reason Allison came back to Detroit.  Welcome back, lady.  Let's hope that we're still watching Red Wings hockey along with you all the way into June.